Mads Mikkelsen WON'T Play the Villain in Thor 2

07.13.12 by BJSprecher

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It seems the upcoming NBC TV series Hannibal has just as big of an appetite as the forensic psychiatrist-turned-serial killer featured in the horror novels written by Thomas Harris on which the series is based. Hannibal's first victim was director David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), who had been attached to direct Fox's Daredevil reboot since March 2011, but dropped out earlier this week to direct the pilot for the TV series based on the early life of Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter. Now, Hannibal has claimed another would-be Marvel-ite, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale). Mikkelsen was in talks to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as an unspecified villain — "a major, major new antagonist," according to producer Kevin Feige — in Thor 2, but apparently the offer came in "too late" and he opted for the title role in Hannibal instead.

Yeah, that’s not happening unfortunately. I had a meeting with them, but they were a little too late. And then Hannibal came in, and everything just came in the same period, so now it’s not happening.

As for who (or what) the villain in Thor 2 will be, speculation abounds. We know that it won't be Thanos, the death-loving Titan (as in Saturn's moon, not the deities of Greek myth) who masterminded the conflict in The Avengers. Marvel is presumably saving him for The Avengers 2 or for the rumored Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Most Marvel-philes think that Skurge the Executioner was the villainous role offered to Mikkelsen, though others contend that Skurge was always more of a pawn of Amora the Entrantress than a villain in his own right. Others think that Carl "Crusher" Creel, a.k.a. the Absorbing Man, will be the villain because of his long history as a Thor villain in the comic books and because his ability to absorb the properties of anything he touches — including Thor's hammer — was given to him by Loki.